Michael Kun Quoted in “Calif. High Court Could Unleash Rest Day Lawsuits”

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Law360February 23, 2015

Michael S. Kun, a Member of the Firm in the Labor and Employment practice, in the firm's Los Angeles office, was quoted in Law360, in “Calif. High Court Could Unleash Rest Day Lawsuits,” by Jonathan Randles. (Read the full version — subscription required.)

Following is an excerpt:

“This is a case that was not on many people's radar. It is now,” Michael Kun of Epstein Becker Green said. “For all the many, many wage-and-hour class actions filed in California in the last 15 years or so, very few of them have addressed this issue. That's because everyone, and I do mean everyone — defense attorneys, the plaintiffs bar, employers — have interpreted the labor code provisions and the language in the code the same way.” …

Two of the questions the Ninth Circuit asked for clarification about involved what specific words in the code meant, but the third question could give employers the biggest headache, Kun said. The Ninth Circuit asked the state high court whether Section 551 of the labor code requires that the day of rest is “calculated by the workweek, or is it calculated on a rolling basis for any consecutive seven-day period?”

Kun said it's not uncommon for retail and hospitality employees to work seven days or more consecutively. In those industries, employees often swap shifts with their colleagues and employers generally set shifts based upon the work week.